EDITORIAL - Oh, shut up

With all the problems besetting this country, here comes another shadowy group, hinting darkly at yet another attempt to kick out President Arroyo. This time the group reportedly of young military officers and enlisted personnel goes by the name Patriotic Soldiers of the Filipino People. Their beef: The supposed "betrayal" of their "brothers-in-arms" by the Arroyo Administration. The group is referring to betrayal in the wake of the Oakwood mutiny, which the officers say failed to result in significant military reforms. A two-page manifesto of the group also blamed "widespread corruption" in the military for the death last month of 1Lt. Jeremy Gay-ya.

The soldiers may have a point about the progress in military reforms. A new defense chief has just formed a committee against military corruption, passing off the joint defense assessment between the Philippines and the United States, which has been going on for some time this year, as a new development. Most Filipinos will agree that the military has been slow in implementing reforms.

The Philippines, however, does not need soldiers with a messianic complex to launch yet another attempt to kick out their Commander-in-Chief. Sure, a new putsch may turn out to be nothing more than another pathetically comic mutiny like the one staged at the Oakwood apartments. There is nothing funny, however, about the negative effects of such military misadventures on the already battered Philippine economy.

If idealistic soldiers truly care about their country, they should simply do their job the best way they can, especially because military performance leaves much to be desired. Leadership change in a free society must come through the ballot, and that opportunity is just five months away. Apart from free elections, there are many other ways to effect reforms, weed out corruption and create a professional military. If disgruntled soldiers think one of their comrades has been murdered to silence him because he has denounced corruption, there are legitimate, peaceful ways of seeking a formal investigation to ferret out the truth and punish the killers.

Coup attempts serve no purpose except to create more instability that the country cannot afford. If all that supposedly idealistic, reformist soldiers have to offer their country is yet another coup attempt, they should just shut up. What we need is to be saved from these self-styled saviors of the Filipino people.